Bush Slams Eminent Domain Abuse

Top Headline at Drudge as of 5:20 CDT: Bush Issues ‘Private Property’ Executive Order.

This is what he links to: Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People. The money excerpt (emphasis mine):

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to strengthen the rights of the American people against the taking of their private property, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.

It’s no accident that Bush issued this today, June 23, 2006: the one year aniversary of Kelo vs. New London, opening the floodgates to tax-hungry governments and land-hungry developers.

Something had to be done, because the Kelo decision tacked an “up for grabs” sign on every piece of private property in the US. The Castle Coalition has been fighting hard since this setback, taking their concerns to the Senate. Not even Supreme Court justices are immune from eminent domain abuse, right David Souter?